To cause a feeling of affectionate happiness: “The thought of his grandmother was enough to warm the cockles of his heart.”
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| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
warm the cockles of one's heart
Gratify one, make one feel good, as in It warms the cockles of my heart to see them getting along so well. This expression uses a corruption of the Latin name for the heart's ventricles, cochleae cordis. [Second half of 1600s]